Engineering Nanocatalysts to Clean Contaminated Water

Groundwater remediation through the catalytic breakdown of the undesired contaminants is a more effective and desirable approach than the conventional physical displacement methods of air-stripping and carbon adsorption. Palladium (Pd) catalysts are known to catalyze the hydrodechlorination of trichloroethene in water, at room temperature, and in the presence of hydrogen. In this talk, I will describe how one can dramatically improve the catalytic function of Pd metal by combining it with gold, how this approach could work on real groundwater systems, and how this example can yield lessons on improving the performance of materials by controlling their structural features at the nanometer scale.